It's Always Been You
by Sally White
Summary: <html><head></head>Once again, a confession has been forgotten and brushed aside. But what if it was remembered later on? Phineas has a nightmare three years after the zombie-pharmacist outbreak that opens up his eyes to his best friend's feelings. Takes place years after Night of the Living Pharmacist. Purely Phinbella fluff</html>


**For the first time, I'm not writing with a prompt I found on the imagineyourotp blog. I watched Night of the Living Pharmacist and was squealing the whole time, and I really wanted to write about some of the after affects, since they didn't forget everything like they usually do whenever Phinbella appears in the show. So yeah…here's my take on what could have happened.**

**This isn't related to The Little Moments Collection. Phineas and Isabella are about 14 in this story, and Ferb is 15-16.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Phineas and Ferb, and frankly I'm not too regretful or bitter about it. Can you even imaging producing such a huge franchise? I would have no life.**

**It's Always Been You  
>By: Sally White<strong>

_"…there's something I have to tell you!"_

_"Okay, shoot."_

_"For the longest time, I—."_

_"Come on, there it is!"_

_"But Phineas! Phineas! I like you!"_

_"I like you, too, Isabella."_

_"No! I mean…I like you, like you."_

_"Wow, I mean…gosh, I…I've always felt—"_

_But before he could get the words out, he saw one of the pharmacist zombies coming up behind the girl. She noticed as well, and let out a shriek full of fear. He felt his rage rise, and he ran to her. "Get away from her!"_

_But he should have known better. The zombie grabbed a hold of his protective head-gear and pulled it off, and then laid his long, bony hand on the boy's bare head. Behind him, he heard the girl gasp in horror. "Phineas! No!"_

_He managed to turn around, feeling the effects of the infection start to take over. He handed the tool in his hand to her. "Go!" And the last thing he remembered seeing was the fear and sorrow on her face before he blacked out…_

"Isabella!"

Phineas bolted upright in his bed, gasping for air. His head quickly turned from side to side, trying to get a grip on what was going on. He realized that he was in his room, safe. He let out a sigh and put a hand on his chest, closing his eyes tight.

He heard a soft growl and opened his eyes to see his pet platypus staring at him with those vacant eyes of his. The red-head reached his arms out and pulled the monotreme into his arms, the feeling of Perry in his arms calming. He felt one side of his bed being pushed down as someone sat down next to him. He turned his head to see his step-brother staring at him with worried eyes.

"I-I'm okay, Ferb," the boy tried to reassure his brother, but his shaky voice wasn't convincing anyone. The green-haired boy didn't say anything, just put a hand on his brother's shoulder. The red-head gave the other boy a grateful smile before closing his eyes again, trying to calm himself down.

It had been about three years since the incident that had turned all of the Tri-State area into zombie pharmacists. It had been a traumatic event for the children who had been involved, though most of them had gotten over it. But it never failed that, around the time of year it had happened, Phineas would always get nightmares about it. They usually included he and all of his friends being turned into pharmacists and he being unable to help, eventually becoming one himself.

But none of his dreams had ever been as clear as the one he'd just had.

He knew that he had forgotten some of the events of that night. It was only natural that his mind would try to force some of the memories back to protect him from having a complete mental breakdown about it.

But this dream…

He felt Ferb get off the bed, and opened his eyes to watch his brother stand up. "If you want to talk about it, I'm here." The Brit gave his step-brother a thumbs up and laid back down in his bed, falling asleep quickly.

Phineas looked down at Perry, lifting the platypus up to look in his eyes. "What do you think, boy? Do you think I should go talk to her about this?"

Of course the semi-aquatic mammal didn't really answer, only gave his signature growl.

"I'll take that as a yes."

—

The last think Isabella had expected to happen so early in the morning was for her to be awoken by the sound of someone knocking on her window. Granted, her room was on the first floor so her window was easy to access, but this hadn't happened in years. The only ones who would do that were the fireside girls and—

"Isabella? Are you in there?"

"Phineas," the Mexican-Jewish girl groaned, throwing back her covers and slowly getting up from her bed. She had taken to only wearing short-shorts and a camie to bed, but she was too tired to be concerned with her appearance right now. She glanced at the clock on her bedside table and bit back a growl. 4:30am. "He'd better have a good reason for waking me up so early," she muttered to herself as she made her way over to her window. She opened it up and glared at the red-head standing on the other side. "What?"

"Sorry, did I wake you?" he asked, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly.

"Not at all," she said sarcastically, lifting herself up onto the windowsill to slip outside with him. She shivered as the chilly night air hit her skin and instantly regretted not grabbing her robe. But she was already out there, and it would only waste precious sleeping time if she went back in to get it. She let out a yawn and rubbed the back of her eyes with her hand. "What did you want?"

"I need to talk to you," he said urgently, his eyes wide and his hands in position to start gesturing. He had become very talkative with his hands ever since he had hit puberty.

"Couldn't this had waited until morning?" she asked him, glancing back into her room at her clock. It was so early…

"No!" he gasped, his hands suddenly gripping her upper arms. "No, it can't wait!"

Isabella blinked at her best friend, surprised by his actions. "Phineas?" She gently eased her arms out of his grip, taking his hands in hers. "What's wrong?" She reached up to feel his forehead and gasped. "You're burning up! Are you sick?"

"Wha—? No!" He gently slapped her hand away before grabbing it, leading her over to the tree that was right in the middle of her backyard. He sat down, pulling her down to sit beside him. He turned so that he was facing her. "I'm not sick. I'm probably still clammy from the bad dream I had."

"You had a bad dream? Is that what this is all about?" As much as she appreciated him wanting to come to her after a bad dream—inside she was swooning at the sweet gesture—it was so early in the morning and it was unlike him to be so rash this early.

He nodded, his eyes wide. "Yes! Isabella, do you remember three years ago, when Danville went through that weird zombie-pharmacist outbreak?"

She nodded, shivering again—only this time not from the cold. "How could I forget? It was awful."

"Yes, yes it was," he agreed, placing a gentle hand on her shoulder to rub up and down her arm. The feeling made her shiver again, this time from joy. "And do you remember anything about how we stopped it?"

"I—actually no, no I don't," she admitted, tilting her head as she tried to think about it. But she was coming up empty. She just shrugged and looked at him. "What about it?"

"I finally remembered what happened," he told her, his other hand coming up to rest on her shoulder. He looked into her eyes, and the intense emotions in his blue orbs startled her. "Isabella, it was you! You saved us all!"

"I…I did?" she said hesitantly, not sure how that was possible. She had only been eleven at the time, and she had been scared out of her wits.

"Yes, you! You somehow got the vortex sprayer attached to the water tower and saved the day! You were so brave!" His expression suddenly turned soft, and she gasped softly when one of his hands gently brushed a lock of hair behind her ear. "And that day…that day, you earned your Emotional Bravery patch."

Isabella looked down, feeling tears trying to build up in her eyes. She blinked rapidly, trying to keep them down. "No I didn't, Phineas. I never earned that patch."

"But you did, Isabella! You just don't remember it." He put both of his hands on her shoulders again, looking deep into her eyes. "Right before I got turned into a pharmacist, you told me that you liked me, liked me."

The Mexican-Jewish girl's blue eyes went wide when he said that, and suddenly all of the memories from that night came back to her.

_"But Phineas! Phineas! I like you!"_

_"I like you, too, Isabella."_

_"No! I mean…I like you, like you."_

_"Wow, I mean…gosh, I…I've always felt—"_

She gasped and yanked away from him, her eyes as wide as they could go and her face scarlet. He remembered…

She shut her eyes tight and covered her face with her hands, feeling her embarrassment wash over her. Oh gosh, oh no. He knew! He knew about her crush on him! So… "Wh-why did you come here?" she asked him, her voice weak and shaking. "Just to tell me that you remembered? To say you're sorry about it? Because I already know that—th-that there's no way you feel the same way…"

"But I do!"

Her head snapped up and she looked at him, her eyes wide once again, this time with disbelief. "What?"

"I do feel the same way!" he told her, waving his hands as he tried to convey just how strongly he felt about this. "I was going to tell you that I liked you, too, and that I always have—but that zombie was about to grab you and you had no protection and I-I couldn't let you turn into one of them! I had to protect you, Izzy!"

She buried her face in her hands, holding in her tears. "This…this can't be happening. It's just a dream! That's it! I'm just dreaming, and I'll wake up soon just like every other time!"

"Isabella!"

She was shocked to feel him grip her shoulders so tightly, and she was even more shocked when he smashed his lips against hers. Her eyes couldn't have possibly gotten any wider, and her whole body tensed up. This couldn't be happening…it just couldn't be. She had to be dreaming…to prove it to herself, she forced herself to reach up to grab his face.

Except she could actually feel his weather-worn skin on her hands, and she felt how his hands slid down from her shoulders to her waist. This…this was real. She gasped into the kiss and wrapped her arms around his neck, eagerly returning it.

It was quite a few moments later when the teens pulled away from each other, faces flushed and out of breath. They kept their arms around each other, though, unwilling to let go just yet. Her eyes searched his for answers, trying to understand. "Why…why now?"

"Because I remembered that you said it first," he murmured, nuzzling her cheek with his huge nose. "And…I had to come make sure that you were alright, that you were safe."

She closed her eyes and sighed softly, happily. She laid her head down on his shoulder, cuddling into his chest. "I've always felt safe whenever I'm with you, Phineas."

"But…that night—"

"I knew that you would find a way to safe us. I knew that, as long as I had you, everything would be alright." She lifted her head to look into his eyes, one hand raising up to gently touch his cheek. "Sure, I was scared, especially when you turned into one of them, but that only fueled my desire to safe you, and all of Danville."

Phineas finally smiled, a true smile, and pulled her to him to tuck her into his chest, her head under his chin. He could feel the part of him that still feared from that night start to heal. He knew that it would take a long while to get over it completely, but…with her by his side, he knew that the process wasn't going to take as long.

**Bah, that's an abrupt ending but I can't think of any more to add to it. I hope you guys enjoyed this!**


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